Birth of a Black Hole

Australian astronomers may be witnessing what has never been seen before - a black hole being born as the core of a supermassive star collapses in on itself.This may be the key to explaining 'gamma-ray bursters' - the most powerful explosions in the Universe since the original Big Bang.Telescopes of Mt Stromlo and Siding Spring Observatories, the Anglo-Australian Observatory and CSIRO's Australia Telescope are trained on a spectacular fireball in the nearby galaxy ESO 184-82. The fireball looks like a supernova - the gigantic explosion that ends the lives of stars many times bigger than our Sun.